5 Key Steps for Optimizing Your Beatport Releases

Sara Mekinc

Feb 25, 2021

Beatport needs no introduction. With over 40M users and broad availability, this channel has become the hub of all things Electronic, connecting fans and DJs worldwide. 

Even more, it has become a revenue source for many artists and labels. When the 2020 Covid pandemic stopped live gigs completely, Beatport saw a 20% increase in releases, proving just how important staying on top of every online channel is. 

❓ So, how to make the most out of your Beatport release?  With this guide, you'll learn how to master 5 key steps: 

• Handle the basics of releasing on Beatport (and getting featured).
• Use social media to gain momentum.
• Create a long-term marketing strategy to sustain sales.
• Maintain a network – it’s more important than quick sales.
• Measure and improve your performance as you go.

To make the insights as relevant as possible, we've also asked UMEK and the 1605 label managers for their inputs. Ready? Let's go.

#1 Release on Beatport and get featured

Bear in mind: you won’t be able to sell your music as an independent artist. You can get your tracks onto Beatport through a label or through an online aggregator or distributor. This means that researching your future labels or distributors is a crucial first step. Some prove to be more successful on Beatport than others. 

Getting onto the Top 100 chart is a matter of getting your track sold a few hundred times, and your fans can help you gain that momentum.

👉 Upload good-quality music.

Upload good-quality music from both an artistic and technical point. Ask yourself: “Will this sell?” Make sure your tracks are polished to perfection, that they include the right metadata, and that your artwork is appealing. 

That can be the deciding factor between getting your tracks noticed and actually selling them. For better insights find the connections between your top-performing tracks so far. Whatever they have in common (beat, genre, promotion strategy etc.) can be a learning moment for the future. You can take it a step further and do the same with the artists similar to you. Beatport analytics tools can make this part much easier, but we'll get back to that later.

👉 Make your profile attractive. 

Regularly update your bio with catchy descriptions, create your own charts, and upload interesting visuals that people would like to click on.

👉 Make your tracks “exclusive to Beatport”.

Make your tracks exclusive for the first days of release and tell your listeners to pre-order them. You might be “awarded” a promotional banner on Beatport’s main pages if you’ll drive traffic that way. 

👉 Plan ahead and have a promo pack ready! 

To get you featured, Beatport will usually need your materials a month in advance. Having a ready-made promo pack with a solid “look and feel” for your project saves you a lot of trouble and gives you time to sync your PR and marketing efforts.

👉 Do your research. 

Browse successful artists, genres, or tracks, and pinpoint the labels behind them. Find a label/distributor who shares your vision and can provide you with the necessary exposure. “Getting featured” can always be a part of your negotiations.

With a music analytics tool such as Viberate's Beatport analytics, artists can use music data to get an upper hand in planning their music career.

“Using an analytical approach doesn’t have to be boring. I named my 2014 album "Rythmia" because it's not a real word, so it's easy to track it. People only google or use it when they talk about your album.” – UMEK

#2 Use your social media to gain momentum

Once your music is on Beatport, tell everyone about it. Publish links on your Facebook, add them to YouTube video descriptions, use track names as Instagram hashtags, tweet about your releases, create stories that feature your music… Be creative.

Standing out on social media is one thing, but your content should also push your music career forward. 

👉 Follow these 3 key pointers:

Set specific and measurable goals (that are also realistic). Once you have your goals, prioritize them, and set a budget.

✔️ “By investing $50, I will get 100 downloads on Beatport in the next 10 days.”

❌ “I want to be a Bass God.”

Research your target audience and the content they respond to the best. Your content should be valuable to your fans, but also follow the goals you’ve set in the first step. 

✔️ Run a remix contest and collaborate with the winner on your next track.

❌ Post pictures of sloths just to get likes.    

Adapt as you go. Social media is always evolving, and so should your strategy. Trying and failing is a natural part of the process, and nobody has ever reached everyone at the same time in their first try. 

✔️ Track your process with analytics to get new ideas.

❌ Stick to that one marketing script from the 1990s.

The most important part of your strategy is engaging your fans. Getting onto the Top 100 chart is a matter of getting your track sold a couple of hundred times, and your fans can help you gain that momentum. 

👉 Get inspired by UMEK’s example. 

He created an exclusive Facebook group that joined “UMEK Ambassadors” from all over the world. The fans who got in promoted his new releases through their channels and were rewarded with UMEK merch or a special meet&greet whenever he came to a gig near them. 

Your fans are an important element of your promotional strategy. Think about what they like and what you can offer them for their help. A growing, engaged community will also not go unnoticed on Beatport, who will again be more willing to feature you.

#3 Create a long-term marketing strategy to sustain sales

While you should employ these aggressive, short-term tactics to boost initial awareness about your tracks, it’s very important to think long-term if you want to create and sustain sales. What can you do to create long-lasting relationships with fans, the artist community, or even journalists/influencers?

👉 You will need time and data. 

Take advice from the 1605 label team, who have strategically involved data into almost every aspect of their strategic planning to “growth hack” their sales. By monitoring their tracks’ performance (is it charting, where is it charting, how long does the initial momentum last, etc.), they could evaluate the “track’s life cycle” and develop tactics to prolong it.

They developed a system where users could register on their website and download the tracks for free three months after the official release, thus creating a mailing list. These users (and influencers) were then the first to be notified whenever new releases were coming and got invited to pre-listen or order new tracks, thus constantly boosting both sales and awareness. 

#4 Network

People are the most important part of your strategy. Each Beatport account has a manager – as an artist, you probably won’t have direct contact, but a label does. To increase the chances of your track getting featured, make sure your account manager is the first to know about new releases.

👉 Develop a relationship with them by sending them regular updates.

Use Beatport features such as exclusive pre-orders, attend relevant events, etc. If you’re interesting enough, you might land a spot in Beatport’s newsletter, get interviewed, or similarly promoted – and not just once! 

“If anyone has five minutes to talk to you about music, use those five minutes!” says UMEK

#5 Improve your performance with Beatport analytics

Once your promotion strategy is set and your music released, monitor everything and adapt as you go. While Beatport does offer a glimpse into your current performance, Beatport analytics can help you plan for the future.

With Beatport analytics, you’ll get a clearer picture of how your music “lives” on Beatport through time, and what you can do to boost downloads:

• Improve your future releases by finding out what the top-charting Beatport tracks have in common.
• Learn from your role models or artists who you know are doing well right now.
• Research artist networks and expand your own. You can start by inspecting interesting collabs, or which labels some artists released on, and evaluate your future prospects.

Give data analytics a go for more extensive work. Check out Beatport analytics, available in the Premium plan – you can test-drive it for free.